The main challenge in digital media is the growth of “news accessed via social media sites” like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Ex: In the USA, the percentage of people who use social media as a source of news has risen to 46%, almost doubling since 2013.

Across the entire sample (50,000), you can find via the below indicators  that the majority of internet users prefer Social Media as a Source of News:

• Users from the age category 18-24s prefer social media as the main source of news (28%) to TV News (24%), while 45+ prefers TV and print news sources.
• Women are much more likely to use social media to find news & less likely to go directly to a website or app. while Facebook, in particular, is the only discovery mechanism that appeals more to women than men.
• Snapchat is one of the growing new networks, only around 1% in most countries say they use it for news.
• Around a quarter of internet news users (24%) share news via social media during the average week.
• 51% – of the sample – said they use social media as a source of news each week.
• At least 1 in 10 now say social media are their main source of news.
• Only around 8% of smartphone users currently use an ad-blocker, & adding to around a third of respondents say they plan to install one on their mobile during the next year.
• For those who start their day with a smartphone, they make their first contact with news in the morning using the smartphone, half in US turn first to a social network, like Facebook (37%) or Twitter (6%); with only a quarter (23%) going to a branded news.
• Although publishers and technology platforms are pushing online video news hardly for commercial reasons, we find that most consumers are still resistant. 78% of respondents say they still mostly rely on text, (41%) says that reading news quicker and more convenient, (35%) says that because of the annoyance of pre-roll advertisements.
• Most people share predominantly news of which they approve, (Finland, Australia, and the U.S) which as a result of, will be affecting the number of positive news stories that people get exposed to.
  By contrast, shares in the UK tend to be more combative – or perhaps more cynical – and are comparatively more likely to share things they don’t like.

A Graph Shows The Growth of Social Media As a Main Source of News.

Methodology:

This Research was conducted by YouGov using an online questionnaire at the beginning of 2016, Based on 26 countries, which makes it the largest ongoing comparative study of news consumption in the world in 2016, concerns about the future of the news industry, the move to mobile, the rise of ad-blocking and the role of technical platforms and other intermediaries.